El Goonish Shive, The Novel
by The Other Side of Darkness
Summary: This is a novelization of the EGS comics. It is NOT an AU, and will follow every arc of EGS precisely as Dan made it. Pairings, for those who can't guess are, TeddxGrace NanasexElliot-temporarily, SarahxElliot, NanasexEllen.
1. Goo

I own NOTHING! But, dear lord, do I wish I lived in Moperville.

Note: This is a novelization of the EGS comics. There will be some additional scenes, and some of the stuff that happens does not translate well to the written word, so they may be somewhat altered.

'Nother note: Other than a few scenes that are hard to describe and additional scenes to give a deeper look into the mentality of certain actions, nothing will be altered. Justin will still be as he is. Grace will still be almost overly sensitive. Tedd will still be the epitome of awesome.

Prologue: Prologues Suck!

Two teens stood in an expanse of white. One stood about six foot tall, nearly towering over his five foot six compatriot. The taller one had brown hair, a black shirt and blue pants, he had a rather annoyed look on his youthful face.

"Hello. I'm Elliot. This thing to my left is named Tedd," Elliot, the taller teen, nodded towards the shorter teen with purple hair and large, mirror lens glasses.

"Sup," Tedd gave a half hearted wave. This one did not look nearly as annoyed as Elliot, though they did appear to wish to be elsewhere.

"As you are probably aware, this is our prologue. And prologues always suck," Elliot continued.

"Always," Tedd emphasized.

"And of course, Our prologue will be no exception."

"Yup."

"Oh, and in case you can't tell, Tedd's a guy," Elliot gestured at the androgynous young man to his left with his thumb.

"_Hey!_"

+- Oink!

"As you are painfully aware," Elliot once again stood in a white expanse next to his friend, "We are still in the introductory stages of this story."

Tedd added, "Which sucks."

"So, to make things more interesting, we will now have bikini clad woman randomly in the background of each scene," Elliot lifted one fist energetically in the air, followed closely by Tedd.

"_Hell yeah!_"

For a couple of seconds, nothing happened as the two teens stood there with their fists in the air.

"C'mon, Sarah," the brown haired teen complained, "That was your cue."

"**I am NOT coming out like this, you pigs!**"

+- He deserved that, folks.

Sometime later, Elliot stood next to a young blonde woman that was roughly the same age as him. She wore a pink shirt and blue jeans.

Elliot's dour expression was matched by hers as he said, "Hey, this is Sarah. The Prude."

Her crossed armed reply was said in an exasperated tone, "Oh, I'm not a prude."

This prompted Tedd to pop up pointing a finger at her accusingly as he said, "Oh, yeah? Then _Strip!_"

He completely missed the look of panic look on Elliot's face as he muttered an, "Oh crap!" under his breath.

The embarrassed look on Sarah's face lasted only seconds before it became twisted in rage and Tedd's entire world became pain.

After a beat down of epic proportions, Sarah's arms were crossed yet again as she walked away from Elliot and a bruised and battered Tedd.

"Call me when the first story starts," She said in monotone.

A look of dawning came to Elliot's face as Tedd whimpered, "Story?"

"I knew we forgot something..."

+- A Noble Cause.

Our brown haired protagonist stood before our purple haired protagonist, a despondent look covering his features.

"Bad news. The first story arc won't be ready to start until next week," Elliot told Tedd.

"What do we do until then?"

Elliot looked off to the horizon in their white expanse his posture and tone becoming rather dramatic, "The one thing we can do, my friend..."

Ten minutes and one hastily crafted sign later could find Tedd and Elliot leaning against a brick wall, right beside a sign that had the words, "The Get Sarah To Wear A Bikini Fund."

God speed, lads...

+- Where DID that come from?

Sarah's outraged cry of, "'THE GET SARAH TO WEAR A BIKINI FUND'?" filled the air.

"Well, you weren't doing it for free," Elliot reasoned.

"So we figured we'd raise fifty bucks and see what happened," Tedd finished for him, nodding sagely with his arms crossed.

Outraged beyond words, Sarah turned her back on her two male friends to gather her wits about her.

Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes and stood straight as a telephone pole, "Do you know what time it is?" She asked in a deceptively cheerful voice. Should the boys see her face it would give away how pissed the young woman was.

"Bikini time?" Elliot asked hopefully.

Magically, a comically large hammer appeared in Sarah's hands, "Time to die."

Startled, Elliot pointed at the hammer, "Where the hell did that come from?"

+- If you take offense, it's your own dirty mind's fault.

A balding man with thick glasses wearing a lab coat cleared his throat as he appeared in the white expanse. He had a thick white mustache that actually hid his mouth entirely, and his hair, while absent from the top of his head, was actually quite long and bushy in the areas it did still grow from.

"Guten tag," he spoke in German, "I am a stereotypical German Scientist. Many of you have wondered where the hell that hammer came from yesterday. The answer? Quite simple," he gestured to a picture of Sarah holding the hammer moments before she turned around to put the hurt on Tedd and Elliot, "You see, when a woman is offended, she can make a hammer appear out of nowhere to pound the offender. There is proof of this in several manga and anime. Allow me to demonstrate."

He cleared his voice before turning to his assistant, a busty woman with her blonde hair pulled into pigtails, wearing a black skirt, a green tank top, and a white lab coat, "Assistant, could you **Censored** my **Censored** with your **Censored**?"

The blonde woman smiled happily as she chirped out, "Sure."

The German scientist cleared his throat yet again as he said, "Although one could call this demonstration a failure, I can definitely see it as a success."

The next day Tedd and Elliot could be found standing in front of a building. At the front of the building, lettering declared this random place to be Moperville North.

Elliot was examining the building with an odd amount of scrutiny for him, "Is it just me or is the school layout exactly like the author's because he's too lazy to think up a new one?"

"It's you," Tedd grumped, "Shut up."

"This is our school," Elliot said, done with his inspection, "Moperville North. We're juniors here and-"

"Why are we here?" Tedd gave in and shouted out, "_It's Sunday?_"

Elliot sighed and addressed his friend, "We're still in the intro stuff, Tedd."

"But that sucks!" the purple haired teen protested, "Isn't there anything better to do?"

Elliot thought for a moment then a slightly perverted grin came to his face as he said, "Well, I guess we _could_ try to figure out what that German scientist said yesterday..."

Tedd, no longer looking anywhere near as pissed about his location, said, "'Assistant, could you **Censored** my **Censored** with your **Censored**?'"

Tedd's gratuitous comment brought a look of shock and disgust from his taller friend, "Wow... Dude... that's just disturbing."

Tedd frowned and pointed at Elliot, "Oh yeah? Well, why don't you tell me some of your theories then?"

The German scientist seemed to appear out of thin air at that point, saying, "Actually, if you want to know, I asked her to clean my desk with her toothbrush."

Elliot was confused, "Now, why the-"

He was interrupted by his smaller friend shoving him aside, "You mean your assistant is cleaning your desk with a toothbrush? Like, right now? Can I watch?"

"Sure," the scientist said with a shrug.

Tedd rushed off to watch the cleaning of a desk with a toothbrush, the scientist trailing after him bemusedly.

Overbalanced, Elliot hit the ground.

"Ow..." After a couple seconds to think over his friends actions, he then commented, "I suppose whether or not Tedd takes interest in something is a good way to determine whether or not it should be censored..."

+-Prologue end.

Chapter One: Goo

A blonde man stood at the front of a class of teenagers, droning on relentlessly despite the lack of interest a majority of his class was showing. He decided to try to give them some incentive.

"Now remember, class..." He looked at all of his students, finger in the air to emphasize his point, "The creation of goo is important to all of your futures!"

He had planned to say more, but one of the more problematic students piped up.

"Um, Teach?"

The teacher's thoughts could be summed up in two words, _Uh oh..._

"Yes, Tedd?"

"Our goo kind of came to life and slithered away..." the young man looked to his lab partner to corroborate his story. Elliot just nodded, "Is that bad?"

The teacher's face palm seemed answer enough.

That day, after school had been let out. Tedd, in his blue shirt and khaki pants, and Elliot could be found stalking the halls of Moperville North, nets in hand, keeping their eyes open for the goo that had been inadvertently brought to life.

"I can believe we're hunting goo..." the purple haired teen muttered.

"Well, it's your fault it's alive," Elliot grumbled back, "so keep looking."

Tedd spotted the slimy green mass slithering down a hallway, "Hey, there it is!"

Elliot, a man of action, dashed forward, swinging his net with all the speed he could muster.

"Huh-? Hey!" he exclaimed as the goo slipped through the cloth netting none the worse for wear, "It oozed right through the net!" The goo, surprisingly quickly, took that moment to slip out of sight, not even leaving a trail to follow.

Elliot groaned, "I suppose we were foolish to try to capture goo using nets..."

"Blasphemy!" Tedd reprimanded, "We just need larger nets!"

Despite the glasses wearing teen's proclamation the two did abandon their nets. Lacking weapons of any form at this point, the more physically fit of the two took the lead.

"Damn! Where did it escape to so quickly?" Elliot swore not but half a minute later. Behind him, Tedd was peeking his head out of the hallway they had last encountered the somewhat gelatinous mass. Spotting something of the same color nearby he darted towards it.

999

No where nearby, the goo had wandered into a supply closet and found a jar of medical steroids. The sickening sloshing and slurping sounds it made belied it's intelligence, meager though it was, as it worked to open the jar.

999

Elliot suddenly felt a chill go down his spine as Tedd walked up to him holding a sponge.

"I sense a disturbance in the goo..."

Ignoring his friends ominous comment, Tedd explained the sponge, "I thought I found it, but it turned out to be a sponge."

999

The goo, previously just slightly larger than the green sponge Tedd had found lying around, began gurgling ominously, it's mass bubbling and roiling like it was in pain.

It suddenly exploded outwards, growing one third of it's original mass bigger with a slimy popping sound. Another few seconds of gurgling and another pop had it growing larger still, it's mass forming distinct tendrils, getting thicker, and loosing it's semi transparent state.

999

"This sucks!" Tedd complained, "Everyone else has already gone home!"

Elliot, overpowering his case of willies with good old fashioned teenaged bravado, ignored his purple haired friend as he said, "We should split up; we'll find it faster that way."

999

By the third time it grew, the goo was completely engulfing the jar of steroids to the point that one could no longer make out the jar at all.

The next explosion of growth, three seams appeared in the slimy mass. Two small seams right next to each other, near the top, the other much larger, just below the others.

The fifth explosive growth spurt had one of the two seams on top splitting open momentarily to show a light green bubble... almost like an eye.

999

Tedd panicked hearing his brown haired friend's comment.

"Split up? Are you mad?" He pointed accusingly at Elliot, "There's _goo_ out there! Going alone is _suicide_!"

Elliot, seeming to completely forget his previous feeling of foreboding, shrugged, amused at Tedd's antics, "Oh, c'mon! It's goo! What are you afraid of?"

999

After a monstrous, slimy pop, the goo had indeed become _monstrous. _It was well over six times it's original mass, had several swishing tendrils of ambiguous strength, green bulbous eyes and a gaping maw filled with sharp teeth. It's gurgling growl scattered even the insects nearby.

999

Tedd floundered for an excuse to keep from splitting up, "...Um...er... Goo makes me puke?" He looked hopeful, half asking with his left eyebrow raised.

Elliot was unimpressed. He turned away from his friend with a scoff, "Sure it does," and began to walk away, keeping his eyes open for the goo.

Too himself he grumbled, "Feh! It's just goo! How dangerous can it possibly be?"

A few minutes after wandering the halls of Moperville North on his own, Elliot was beginning to wonder if this search was pointless.

_Where is this goo? I wonder if it dried up or something..._ he didn't even pause to observe the mural to his left as he walked towards the designated socialization area. _Maybe it ended up in the cafeteria—Holy crap!_

Fear spread across Elliot's face like fire as he saw the transformed goo, all slimy tendrils, green eyes and sharp teeth. It almost appeared to have hands, one of them holding..._something_.

His bluster from earlier all but completely gone as he saw how dangerous the goo had indeed become, Elliot struggled to think of something to say that might placate the creature that was looking at him like a tasty snack.

"Um... Hello, Mister Giant Goo Monster...Any chance of me just leaving safely?"

The creature's response was another gurgling growl that made Elliot's stomach turn.

"Crud."

For a moment, Elliot became distracted by an image in his mind of what the poster would look like if this were a publicized event. To the right would be the goo monster, under dramatic lighting. To the left himself, looking rather pathetic as he held up a sign with his own name on it.

The poster would have the following announcement.

_SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!_

[Goo to the right] _VS_ [Elliot with his sign to the left]

_BE SURE TO PLACE YOUR POTENTIALLY_

_ILLEGAL AND MORALLY OBJECTIONABLE_

_BETS NOW 'CAUSE ONCE THIS GETS_

_STARTED IT WONT BE OVER TILL IT'S OVER!_

Shaking away that random thought, Elliot frowned at the goo, finding his bravado again. He took up a ready stance that spoke of martial training and challenged the monster.

"Bring it on..."

The goo hissed, accepting the challenge and launching one fist shaped tendril forward.

Elliot dodged backward at the last second, the splat of the goo hitting the floor covered up by a monstrous boom that shook the very walls.

Elliot landed in a crouch, his thoughts racing, _Damn! I barely dodged that!_

In the middle of his musings he noticed a stray fork on the ground, "Hmm...?" _A fork that someone dropped earlier? Yes! Advantage: Elliot!_

The black shirt wearing teen snatched up the fork, darted to the creature's side, and tossed the fork with pinpoint accuracy as he shouted out, "**TOGAKEIRU FOHKU KOHGEKI!**"

The fork whistled as it flew threw the air, pointy end first, and slapped into the goo monster directly between the eyes. Elliot's eyes lit up in victory.

Until the fork came out of the back of the goo monster's mass, it's velocity almost unaltered, the only thing to show for his effort being a green fork where once there was a white one.

The goo let out a series of growling hissing gurgles that might be interpreted as mocking laughter as it grinned at Elliot, showing off it's rows of sharpened teeth.

Elliot was annoyed with the lack of effect, but did not have anything else on hand so waited out the goo's next move as he thought, _It didn't do anything to it...How the hell do you harm goo?_

The goo opened it's maw and _roared_, finding no reason to delay it's own offensive actions.

999

Some time later, Elliot ran up to Tedd, who appeared to be distracted.

"There you are, Tedd! Listen, I found the goo, but..."

Tedd, startled, yelled out, "No, I was not in the girls locker room!"

Elliot blinked in confusion at his friend, "Um... What?"

Tedd just balled up is fists and looked towards the ceiling as he finished his rant with, "Ok, maybe I was, but it's not like anyone was in there!"

Elliot was now exasperated, scratching the back of his head as he tried to remember how it was he came to be hanging out with this weirdo.

Tedd finally turned to look at who had startled him, "Oh, it's just you, Elliot. Sup?"

After briefly explaining the situation to Tedd, Elliot allowed his friend a few moments to think.

The purple haired, androgynous teen stood there with one arm supporting the other, his chin resting on his fist.

"Hmm... So it's become a giant monster... How did you escape?"

A glint of pride entered the taller teens eye as he said, "Simple! I told it a hero from Dragon Warrior was behind it and ran when its back was turned!"

Tedd pumped his fist into his palm, "Of course! Any monster that is anything like a Slime would naturally fear a Dragon Warrior hero!"

"I don't think that will work twice, though," Elliot intoned as he kept an eye out for the goo, to ensure it didn't sneak up on the two of them, "I bet it's pretty pissed off right about now..."

Ted grinned, lifting his fist into the air with one finger pointed skyward, "Worry not, comrade, for I have a plan!"

Elliot turned a deadpan, half lidded look to the purple haired glasses wearer, "_That_ worries me..."

Despite his lack of confidence in Tedd's planning ability, Elliot obeyed the shorter teen's demand to retrieve a lighter. Not far off of the campus of Moperville North he found a chubby man with goatee and mustache, wearing a green trench coat, a navy blue shirt and a backwards baseball cap. The man silently handed over the lighter at his request, not even blinking at giving it to someone obviously too young to smoke.

As he ran back towards the school, Elliot tossed a thanks over his shoulder, "Thanks for the lighter!"

Making it back to a rather bored looking Tedd, he said, "Okay, Tedd, I got the lighter. Now what?"

Tedd, leaning over the railing of the school's front steps, drawled out, "Well, as we're already outside, why not go home?"

Elliot frowned at his friend and began to raise his voice, "Home? We're _not_ leaving that goo in there!"

Tedd sighed, straightening his poster, "It was just a suggestion."

Lowering his voice again, the brown haired teen flicked the lighter on, "Feh. So what are we going to do, burn it?"

"Actually, Elliot," Tedd said, placing one arm behind his back and lifting one finger on his other hand to emphasize his point, "Just the opposite..."

Leading Elliot back into the school, Tedd held off the rest of his explanation until they had found a step ladder, placed it underneath one of the ceiling mounted fire extinguishers, and had Elliot climb to the top, lighter in hand.

"The goo," Tedd, began, once more holding up a finger to emphasize his point, "is only able to maintain it's current form due to a delicate balance of liquids and solids. It is absorbant, so if we drench it with water, the balance should be undone and all we'll have to do is clean up a puddle!" He nodded at his own genius and went on to say, "Of course, not every area of the school has sprinklers, so we should wait for it to come to us."

Elliot nodded to his friend, following the explanation rather well.

"Okay, Just one question..." He pointed down the hallway, "Is that close enough for ya?"

Thirty meters down the hall from their current position, the goo was slithering forward, its gargling growl promising pain as soon as they were within reach.

Tedd proceeded to point dramatically at the sprinkler, "Now, Elliot, _now_! Use the fire from the lighter to activate the sprinkler system!"

Elliot flicked the lighter on and waved it back an forth across the sprinkler anxiously, growing nervous as nothing happened.

"It's not working!" Elliot wailed, "Something's wrong with the sprinklers!"

"_WHAT?_"

999

Several years earlier, the blonde Science teacher, with noticeably longer hair, stood in the principals office, extolling the virtues of repairing their fire extinguishers.

"Sir, we really should get the sprinklers fixed."

A short chubby man sitting at the principal's desk, with a rather disturbing resemblance to Adolf Hitler, slammed his chubby fists on the desk with a cry of, "_NEIN!_ The school budget is to be spent on murals! _Murals I say!_"

999

Back in the present, Tedd was growing nervous as the goo came ever closer. Its mass had only increased since it's brief skirmish with Elliot, and it almost looked hungry as it approached.

"Um... Elliot?" Tedd just barely refrained from whimpering, "Any ideas?"

Elliot's face hardened into a fierce scowl and a dark energy seemed to radiate from his form, "Just one..."

"Um, you okay..." Tedd mumbled to his friend.

Elliot ignored him as he continued, "And I really hate to do it, but..."

Without warning, Elliot hopped down off the step ladder and ran forward, a battle cry on his lips!

"_AAAAAAAAAHH!_"

Dodging a sloppy strike from a fist like tendril, Elliot darted into close combat range. He proceeded to punch the creature in its left eye covering his hand and most of his forearm in green viscous slime, and eliciting a _SKREEE _from the monster.

With his free hand he lit the lighter, and jabbed it into the eye socket as he removed his right arm.

The goo monster's scream of pain and fury got louder and angrier as the eye quickly caught fire and spread quicker.

Elliot turned around and sprinted away. He got just out of range of a fiery explosion, but was still knocked off his feet by the concussive force of the blast.

He landed at Tedd's feet as the purple haired teen pointed out, "Okay, I don't care if you did use the lighter to set it on fire; it blowing up is just ridiculous."

"_Yes!_" Elliot exclaimed from his spot on the ground at his friends feet, "I am the _**Man**_!" He hopped to his feet, his hair mussed, his arms covered in slime up to the elbow and a slightly manic look of disbelief, relief and pride on his face, "I can't believe I pulled that off so perfectly!"

Tedd, however, saw a flaw in the execution and did not hesitate to point it out, "Except you didn't give any of your attacks pointless Japanese names."

For a moment, silence.

Then Elliot smacked himself in the forehead with one slime covered hand, "Aigh! God dammit! Son of a... ERGH! Can I get a do over?"

+- End Chapter One: Goo


	2. Shade Part One

Chapter Two: Shade, Part One

At the ungodly hour of two in the afternoon... on a Saturday, Elliot was woken up prematurely by a phone ringing. Not really thinking about it, just wanting to make the ringing stop, the brown haired teen picked up the phone.

His eyes were still sleep addled, the blanket was still half on his head, and he was barely able to snort out an understandable greeting to whoever was on the other end of the line.

"Hello?"

"_Elliot! It's Sarah! You and Tedd are in today's paper!_" The blonde girl all but shouted over the phone, "_It talks about how Tedd brought the goo to life and how you destroyed it._"

Elliot nodded though he knew Sarah could not see it, "Well, yeah, some guys interviewed us. I guess some people think anything is news..."

"_You don't consider goo coming to life news?_" Sarah was understandably incredulous.

"Not after some of the stuff I've seen at Tedd's house..."

999

Elsewhere, someone else was perusing the Saturday paper and also came across the article about Tedd, the goo and its eventual destruction at the hands of Elliot.

_Could it be?_ The person thought, _Could... could this "Tedd" help me?_

999

Back at Sarah's house, the young woman was screwing up her courage to do something she'd wanted to do for a while.

"So, um, Elliot... I was thinking maybe we should see a movie tonight..."

Elliot's response was quick, "_Cool! I'll call Tedd._" And unsatisfactory.

"T-Tedd? A-actually, I was thinking just the two of us would go to a movie, together..."

"_But Tedd will get lonely! We really should include him._"

Sarah was beginning to lose her patience, "He can watch TV!" She nearly shouted into the phone, "Look, you goon, I'm trying to ask you to go out with me!"

"_Well, yeah, I figured you wanted to go the theater and not rent..._"

"What? That's not-"

"_Alright, I've got Tedd online. He's interested in 'Bionic Lesbians From Mars: Episode VIII'. What do you wanna see?_"

Sarah's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as she came to the eventual conclusion that she was romantically interested in a moron.

999

Later that day could find the three teens standing outside the theater. The cold weather prompted Elliot and Sarah to add a jacket to their normal ensemble.

Tedd was wearing a winter cap, a scarf, a heavy winter coat and wool mittens and still seemed to be freezing, his arms wrapped tight around himself and his whole body shivering.

"So many movies..." Elliot intoned, looking at the list, "Alright, what should we see?"

Sarah, her entire goal for the evening already being thwarted by Tedd's presence, was noncommittal in her response, "Anything but a Chick-Flick."

Tedd stuttered out through shivering jaws, "B-but y-you a-are a ch-chick...

Sensing the argument to come, and wanting nothing to do with it, Elliot took off his jacket, pulled it over his head while leaving the front open so he could continue to peruse the list of movies and began mentally chanting a mantra, _Nothing can penetrate the Coat of Solitude..._

"So?" Sarah snapped at Tedd, "My movie preferences are not defined by my gender!"

The shivering teen turned to her with a grin hidden by his scarf, "O-oh, I-I get it! Y-you're a l-lesbian! Gotcha!"

For a moment Sarah thought of attacking Tedd, but seemed to push it to the side, _He's getting the beating of a lifetime once he takes off that thick winter coat..._

Elliot was deep into his mantra by that point, _I am invincible..._

After finally picking a movie, and with his coat back on normally instead of draped over his head, Elliot went to buy the tickets.

"Three students for Attack Of The Frozen Waffle," he said to the blonde haired teen in the ticket booth, handing over enough money for all three.

"You are the _man_!" He got in return as he was handed the tickets.

"Huh?"

"Those two fine ladies are with you, right? Way to go, Playah!" The blonde teen grinned in pride at his fellow playah as he handed him his change.

"What?" Elliot resisted the urge to face palm as he began to explain, "First of all, only one-" He then noticed a discrepancy in the amount of money in his hands, "Wait, this is too much change..."

The blonde's grin became almost devious as he said, "Now, I can't charge full price to a fellow playah, like yourself!" He gave Elliot a thumbs up as he finished with, "Buy your women some diet soda! They'll 'thank' you later..." and the whole bit was capped off with a conspiratorial wink.

Elliot didn't notice the wink, pondering the cash in his hands and the virtues of being honest about Tedd's gender.

Not twenty seconds later, Elliot began to lead his two friends towards their designated theater, a half lidded look on his face as he said, "Follow me, ladies."

Tedd's outraged cry of, "What?" didn't change the fact that Elliot didn't have to pay full price for three tickets.

999

"**What is it I'm looking at here?**"

In the theater, the movie well underway, Sarah sat between Tedd an Elliot, occasionally cutting her eyes to the taller of the two longingly.

"**Well, General, it's... a frozen waffle.**"

"**This is what destroyed an entire city?**"

The blonde girl cut a quick look to Tedd, making sure he was completely distracted by the movie before looking at Elliot a little more intently. A plan quickly formed in her mind to salvage at least some small part of this evening.

"**It is more dangerous than it appears!**"

Sarah leaned over in her seat, laying her head against Elliot's shoulder, getting a glance from the taller teen.

"**You, Dr. German, are a loon. We have nothing to fear from such a simple thing!**"

Elliot, not quite sure how to react to the subtle intimacy Sarah was trying to initiate, simply went back to watching the movie.

"**Nothing at all!**"

999

Well after the movie was over, the three teens were in Elliot's car on the way home. Tedd, still wrapped up in his thick winter clothing, was vocal about his opinion of the movie they just watched and its lack of favorable qualities.

"That was the worst movie ever," he proclaimed, "Ever I say!"

Sarah turned to Tedd from the front passenger seat, "Oh, and the Bionic Lesbians would've been better?" She did not seem convinced by his arguments so far.

Tedd, understanding that it would take more than his approval of a movie to warrant Sarah's own, quoted a fact he'd heard about the Bionic Lesbians From Mars: Episode VIII, "Ebort gave it two thumbs up!"

She was still unimpressed, but further debate was stalled by Elliot.

"Your house, Tedd," he pulled his car over to the curb.

Tedd exited the car, bidding a quick farewell to his friends. He was still pondering how one could possibly extoll the virtues of Waffles over Lesbians.

_Waffles Versus Lesbians..._ were his exact thoughts, _There just isn't any contest!_

"Are you Tedd?"

Startled out of his thoughts, Tedd whipped around to face the speaker with a voice he did not recognize. What he found was a dark skinned girl with long, coffee brown hair kept in a ponytail, wearing a trench coat. She was shivering, nearly as much as Tedd was earlier, as she spoke.

"A-are you Tedd?" She repeated her first question to the purple haired teen, "That guy who made goo come to life?"

A little surprised that the pretty girl was talking to him over something as silly as that little goo debacle, Tedd nodded, "Um, yeah, that's me. But who are you?"

"I'm Grace," she told him easily enough, "Can we, um, go inside? I'm cold."

Tedd lifted an eyebrow at that, "Now wait a minute... I've never met you before, and-" at about that moment in time he realized this woman, who looked to be around his age, wasn't waring any shoes and he couldn't see the collar of a shirt, "Um, what are you wearing underneath that trench coat?"

Grace, unsure of what he was getting at, answered honestly, "Well, nothing, but-"

Tedd, suddenly quite accommodating, rushed over to his door, opening it up and offering her a rapid fire speech, welcoming her inside, "_''rehavingnightmaresit'!_"

A couple minutes later, Grace was sitting in a green leather chair, nursing a hot chocolate while Tedd fetched some clothing for her. Hearing him come back into the room, she felt the need to explain a little bit about the trench coat.

"Thanks for letting me in," She looked a mixture of depressed and relieved as she said this, "And I want you to know that the reason I'm only wearing this coat isn't sexual in any way."

"Dammit," Tedd cursed, then rushed to cover it up when he realized he spoke out loud, "I mean, um...Listen putting clothes onto a girl goes against all my instincts, but if ya want you can wear some of my clothes for now so you won't be stuck just wearing that."

Grace seemed honestly surprised by the purple haired glasses wearer's generosity.

"Thanks, Tedd. I-"

She was interrupted by a man's voice yelling down to the basement, "_TEDD? WHO'S DOWN THERE?_"

Tedd was visibly nervous as he muttered, "Aw crap, my dad's home!"

Seconds later a man, just a bit taller than Tedd himself, came to be standing in front of the two teens. His blue hair was cut short unlike his son's purple locks, he had a blue mustache that hid his mouth when he talked normally and he had a pair of mirror lens glasses on his face like Tedd, only his were rectangular instead of circular.

"Tedd," He scolded, "You know you're supposed to call ahead before before bringing anyone into this house unless it's Elliot!" His arms were crossed, one finger in the air to emphasize his point, and yet again proving his genetic connection to Tedd.

Grace's eyes were wide as saucers as she noticed man Tedd called 'Dad', _I don't believe this! How can he be Tedd's father?_

Similarly, the look on Tedd's father's face changed when he properly identified Grace, _Is that-Shade Tail?_

"Shade..." Tedd's father intoned to Grace, "Does anyone in your family know that you're here?"

"'Shade'...?" Tedd muttered looking at the young woman.

"No, they don't," Grace answered, looking at the floor.

His father nodded and pointed in her general direction, "Good let's hope it remains that way. Tedd, make up the guest room. Shade here will be staying with us. See if you can get that girl Sarah to help get her some decent clothes tomorrow, as well. Other than Elliot and Sarah, tell no one that Shade is here, got that?" He turned to leave after giving his orders to his son.

Grace, or Shade, snapped her head up in shock, the two locks of hair framing her face seeming to lift with her mood, "Are you serious? You're going to protect me?"

Tedd, still standing next to the chair Grace was sitting in, still holding the clothing meant for her and still confused all to hell, could only mutter, "...What the hell is going on...?"

Quickly giving the clothes to Grace, he ran to catch up with his father.

"Okay, Dad, while Grace is changing her clothes, tell me what's going on! Aren't we going to get in trouble for keeping her from her family? How do you know her? Why do you call her Shade?" He was breathing a little hard by the time he asked all of the questions he wanted to know the answers to.

His father did not hesitate in his answer, pointing directly at Tedd to get his point across without any misinterpretation, "_DGB._" He then quickly walked away, not letting his son get another word in edgewise.

Tedd was now more confused than ever, scratching his head as he tried to connect the cute girl with his dad's job, "How is Grace 'Dad's Government Business'?"

Grace had finished dressing by this point and had come up from the basement wearing a pair of his khaki pants and one of his black shirts.

"It's a long story, Tedd. Thanks for the clothes," She paused, then observed, "They fit surprisingly well."

Ignoring the fact that his clothes fit well on a girl, the teen turned to face her, "Listen, Grace, I don't mean to sound rude, but why are you here?"

Grace, yet again, seemed shocked by something either Tedd or his father had done.

"...You called me Grace."

Tedd lifted one eyebrow at that, "Huh? Um, well yeah, that is your name, isn't it?" he was confused further when the pretty girl seemed to get more depressed than ever before looking at him with desperate hope in her eyes.

Tears gathering in the corners, she made a request, "Tedd, I Came here to get help from you... but first I want you to get to know me as Grace, and not as Shade or anything else! …Can you do that for me?"

His eyebrow still raised he gave a brief nod, "You're confusing the hell out of me, but I suppose I can do that..."

Relieved almost beyond words, Grace turned away from him, tears finally leaking from her eyes in joy, "Thank you."

999

About an hour later could find Grace and Tedd vegging out on the couch in the basement, watching TV. Tedd channel surfed for a little bit, looking for something of interest, but gave it up as futile after a few minutes.

"Man, there's nothing good on TV. Wanna do something else?" He asked Grace.

"I dunno. Anything 'normal' would be good," She looked a little tired as she said this.

Tedd grinned as he turned to her, resting one arm on the couch's arm, "Really? Cause ya know, it's technically normal for people to sleep together..."

Grace was quick though, "Ah, but not if they've just met and aren't in a relationship," and she lifted one finger, as she had seen Tedd's dad do, to emphasize her fact.

Tedd didn't move, didn't say anything, he almost wasn't even breathing.

_Don't fall for it, stay on guard..._ He told himself, _Just wait for the hammer... Any second now..._

The dark skinned girl was beginning to worry for his health.

"...Um, are you feeling okay? You look kinda frozen..."

999

Elsewhere, a figure shrouded in darkness impatiently waited the return of another.

The other person dropped out of the sky, wings clearly distinguishable on their back.

"Did you find her?" The first figure demanded.

"No," came the scratchy reply from the second.

Both figures had eyes that glowed with sinister intent as they spoke.

The first turned away from the second, and his spiky hair could be made out, "Dammit, Shade! Why have you left us?"

The second, protrusions coming from the side of his head, things that might be ears, asked, "Shall I look again?"

"...No," the first said after a second of though, "We have more pressing concerns at the moment." He looked off into the distance, growling with barely suppressed anger, "Enjoy your time off, Shade... _It_ _will not last._"

999

The next day, at two P.M., Tedd decided to call Elliot. He quickly punched in his friend's number and waited for him to pick up.

"Hey Elliot, it's..."

The other teen interrupted him with an annoyed bark of, "_No way! It's my day off! Get Randal to do it!_"

Tedd lifted an eyebrow, not that Elliot could see, "...Huh?"

"_What? Oh..._" He seemed to realize it wasn't his boss that called, "_Uh, sorry about that. What's up, Tedd?_"

"Listen, I want you to come over. Something crazy happened last night and-" He heard his father call him, "Uh, hold on a second," Tedd pulled the receiver away from his mouth, "Yeah dad?"

From Elliot's side of things, the taller teen was laying in bed again, the blanket still half covering his head. He could hear Tedd's dad say something, but couldn't make out what.

After he was done speaking Tedd returned to the phone, "_Okay, apparently odds are good that your phone is tapped, so I can't go into details just now. Can ya come over?_"

For a moment, Elliot just stared at the phone, wondering if his friend was serious.

999

An undecided amount of time later, Elliot arrived at Tedd's house and was greeted at the door by his friend's father.

"Ah, Hello Elliot!" The blue haired, mustachio'd man greeted him, "Let's see..." He put one fist to his chin in thought, holding up one arm with the other, "Tedd was either upstairs studying, or downstairs working in that lab I gave him..."

A boom, a flash of light that seemed to temporarily render the world in negative colors, and the cry of, "_AAAA! My eyes! MY BEAUTIFUL EYES!_" answered that question.

Elliot walked by Tedd's father a half lidded look on his face.

"Basement it is then."

"Try not to get injured this time."

After storing his coat, Elliot walked over to what appeared to be a mutant cat creature with hedgehog spines going from the top of its head to the tip of its tail. He carefully pet the creatures head.

"Ah, Jeremy..." He greeted the cat thing, "What's it like, being a creature that nature never intended?"

Jeremy just meowed at him questioningly.

While his back was turned, Grace had noticed him, and approached, hand outstretched to shake hands.

"Oh hi!" She greeted, "You must be Elliot!"

Elliot was puzzled for a moment, then it clicked. He pointed at her, and said, jovially enough, "And you must be a robot, as there's no was a hot chick like you would be in Tedd's lab!"

"What?" Grace frowned at the accusation, "I'm not a robot!"

"Aw man, I'm sorry..." Elliot was honestly embarrassed, "He didn't kidnap you, did he?"

Grace just gave the brown haired teen a deadpan look.

999

Later that very day, after a thorough tour of Tedd's lab, Grace had a few things she needed cleared up.

"Tedd..." she ventured, "After all I've seen, there is one question I must ask..." She turned a fierce glare on the purple haired teen, "Do you enjoy playing God?"

Tedd, sitting at a computer, playing a video game, with Elliot to his right, didn't hesitate in answering, "Why yes, yes I do."

"Hey, that village doesn't believe in you," Elliot pointed out.

"When do I get a turn?" Grace asked.

"As soon as I burn this village to the ground."

A few minutes later, Tedd and Elliot stood side by side, watching Grace play the game Tedd had abandoned in favor of explaining things to Elliot.

"So that's how you two met? Twisted."

"Yup."

"And you want me to convince Sarah to help get Grace some clothes of her own?"

Tedd nodded turning to face his friend, "I'd do it, but no fashion sense and I'm banned from that area of the mall."

Elliot shrugged and crossed his arms, "We'll need to know what size clothes she wears."

Tedd looked back to the pretty young lady playing on his computer, "Could be a while; I think she's addicted.

"No! Bad cow!" Grace shouted at the computer, "Stop eating all of my villagers!"

999

One phone call and some ego stroking later, Elliot stood upstairs waiting for Sarah with Tedd.

"Okay," Elliot said, pointing back at himself with his thumb, "It took some convincing and a whole lot of complimenting of her artistic skill and fashion sense, but she's on her way."

Tedd was confused, "Why is she coming here? We just need her to get clothes."

The brown haired teen shrugged, "Eh, I think my compliments went to her head. She said something about needing to see Grace to know what to get her."

Tedd was a little stunned, rubbing his chin in thought, lifting one eyebrow, "I never thought Sarah would come back to my house..."

"Hey, you turned her back to normal," Elliot reasoned, "She's got no reason to hold a grudge."

Before Tedd could formulate a reply, an obnoxious dinging noise filled the air. Both of them turned in the direction of the door and Tedd went to answer it.

"Sup- Sarah?" Opening the door for the blonde, it was revealed she was wearing the same clothing as normal, pink shirt and blue jeans, with the addition of a black beret tilted to one side and a pair of stylish dark sunglasses.

"Hello Tedd," she greeted him coolly, "Take me to the girl; I have work to do."

Not wanting to say anything at this point that might end up with his face beaten in, Tedd simply went to fetch Grace.

Sarah approached Elliot, "So where is this girl, 'Grace'?"

Thinking for a moment, Elliot gave her his best guess, "Well, I believe at the moment Tedd is trying to drag her away from his computer..."

At that moment Tedd was indeed pulling the dark skinned girl away from the game, "C'mon Grace, Sarah needs to see you if she's going to get you stuff!"

Grace was struggling to get back to the computer and continue playing the game, "But... But I was just about to trade in my cow for a sheep!" She tried in futility to reach the keyboard.

Tedd became more insistent, hearing that, "In that case, I'm doing you a huge favor!"

A couple minutes later and Tedd placed Grace before Sarah, "Here ya go."

Sarah was almost disgusted by the discovery of the girls current mode of dress, "You're wearing Tedd's clothes?" she frowned, "This is an emergency!" She paused to think for a moment, then added, "Wait... The reason you need me to do this is because someone dangerous might see and recognize you?"

Grace, wondering about how much to give away, hesitated, "Um... Sorta..."

"Join me in the next room, Grace. I have an idea..." She ushered the other girl out of the boys' sight.

Tedd grinned almost evilly, "You see that? She wants to be alone with Grace! Man, I told you she was a lesbian!"

Elliot scoffed, "Right... that would explain her wanting to go out with me."

Tedd's head whipped towards Elliot, "She wants to go out with you? Since when?"

But Elliot was too distracted by the return of Sarah and Grace to answer, "Whoa!"

"TA-DA!" Sarah said in presentation of Grace.

The target of her ministrations was standing there, wearing a pair of fake glasses, her dark hair pulled out of it's pony tail, even the two prominent bangs that normally framed her face brushed down to be inconspicuous. Grace seemed dubious about her change in appearance.

She turned to Sarah, a frown on her face, "I look ridiculous."

Sarah shrugged, holding up her hands, "Well, this is just so you can go out without someone recognizing you!"

Tedd pointed to her new look and added a comment, "Just think of it like normally you're Superman, and this is Clark Kent."

Elliot had a deadpan look to him as he thought, _She didn't look ridiculous before?_

Sarah hooked her arm with Grace's and began dragging her for the door, "And now that you're disguised, _to the mall!_"

"Noooo," Grace cried, struggling against Sarah like she had with Tedd, reaching for the basement door, "My villagers need me!"

999

At the mall, and sans beret and dark glasses, Sarah led the dark haired girl around. Grace, appearing to have never even been to such an establishment, her head was whipping around, taking in all the sights.

"Let's see," Sarah began, "Probably the first thing we should get you is a decent coat to wear..."

At that moment Grace spotted something she did recognize.

"VIDEO GAMES!"

Sarah tried to be the voice of reason, "Now hold on. That money Tedd's dad gave us is meant only to be spent on-"

Grace ignored Sarah and ran past her, a comical 'Zoooom!' sound filling the air.

"-clothes..." Sarah muttered, watching the other girl sprint through the mall to her destination.

Sarah would find Grace a few seconds later, sitting on the floor, reading through a game guide.

"Man, the sheep really does suck..." She mumbled to herself as she looked over the statistics.

"C'mon, Grace," Sarah urged, "We're supposed to be getting you some clothes."

Grace ignored her to keep reading the book.

"Th mall is only open until five on Sundays. At this rate you'll wind up playing those games without any clothes on!" She tried using the fear of being naked in a house with Tedd as incentive.

"You think Tedd would mind?" Grace asked, finally looking up from the book.

Sarah had to smack herself in the forehead. This girl was obviously too naive for her own good.

After finally convincing the girl to leave the game store and find some clothing, Sarah came around from another isle to see the other girl glaring at the shirt she was inspecting.

"Found any clothes you like?" Sarah asked.

Grace sighed, "Yeah, but none of them are stretchy enough."

Sarah took a look at some of Grace's choices and lifted one eyebrow, "Well you know, that wouldn't be a problem if the clothes you looked at weren't so small..."

"They're small on me now, but when I'm small they'll fit well."

Sarah scoffed and crossed her arms, "Oh what, you plan to lose some weight? C'mon, you look fine already!"

Grace considered Sarah's words, "That's not what I meant, but maybe I should. One hundred sixty pounds is pretty heavy."

For a couple seconds Sarah was shocked into silence by the other girls words. Eyes wide and pointing at her general, obviously well defined form, Sarah stuttered out, "Y-you weigh a hundred and s-sixty...?"

Oblivious to the blonde's distress at what should be a physical impossibility, Grace nodded, "Last I checked," she smiled as she saw something else she liked, "Ooh, those clothes look good!"

999

About a half hour later, Sarah was still trying to chew her way through the paradoxical data Grace had revealed to her.

"Teenage girl, average height, almost no visible fat, one hundred sixty pounds... It boggles the mind!"

Raising one, slightly annoyed, eyebrow at her new friend, Grace asked, "We've finished shopping and you're still stuck on that?"

"I'm sorry," Sarah quickly apologized about her obsessiveness, "it's just that I find it a little-"

"Weird?" Grace interrupted her. Sarah nodded. Grace just smiled, "That's okay. I'm a weird person."

Sarah smiled a little herself, deciding that it was a mystery that, at this point, really didn't matter. Instead she focused her attention on something of more immediate consequence.

"...Dude, where's my car?"

Looking around, the other girl piped up, "Um, I think we went through the wrong exit..."

Sarah looked around again herself and groaned, "Oh great, we did take the wrong exit! And with the mall being closed we're going to have to go all the way around!"

Grace spotted a shortcut and hoped that might cheer her friend up, "Why not go through that gap between the buildings?"

"Hmmmm..." Sarah glanced at the alley then placed a hand on her chin as she recited the facts she could already tell about it aloud, "Dark alley... Night... Two unarmed teenage girls... Screams wouldn't be overheard by nearby traffic..." She missed the way that each thing she said made Grace get more and more nervous, "Sounds good; Let's go!"

"Um, wait a second..."

A few feet into the alley, Grace was really regretting pointing it out to the blonde girl.

"Let's turn back..." She whispered nervously.

"This was your idea, you know," Sarah told her dryly.

"It was a stupid one."

Suddenly a man in a ski mask, equipped with a knife jumped from behind a barrel and roared at the two girls, "_Hand over all your money! DO IT NOW!_"

Sarah, fearful for both her and her new friend's lives, put her hands in the air and tried to placate the man, "O-okay, we don't want any trouble! We'll give it to you!"

Grace looked to be panicking, her entire body shaking with fear.

"_HURRY UP!_" The masked man barked at the two of them.

Sarah noticed Grace's state of panic and tried to get her to settle down and give over the money, "Grace, calm down! You have the money, just git to him and we'll-"

She was cut off by an inhuman growl coming from the other girl. She hunched over, her eyes began to glow, and her hair _flowed_ out of it's brushed state, her two locks of thick hair at the front swishing out. Tears began leaking out of her eyes as her body began to go through a change.

First, Grace's eyes started glowing red. Then her hair, already looking pretty wild as it moved on a wind that did not exist, became spikier and wilder yet. Her fingernails grew into long black claws, fur started growing all over her body. Finally, a tail grew out from the base of her spine, growing a large amount of fur and curling back towards the ground once it reached a certain length.

Her transformation complete, which only actually took a few seconds, Grace turned a fierce brown eyed glare on the mugger.

The man frowned behind his mask and readied his knife to stab the two girls.

"I don't know what the hell you are, but I'm still gonna mess you up good little girl!"

That plan of action was nixed when a purple glow surrounded the hunting knife he was using and it was lifted out of his hand, a high pitch hum filling the air.

The thief took a moment to cogitate the current events then turned and ran, throwing his hands in the air, shouting the whole way, "_AAAAAAAA! DEMON GIRL! REPENT! REPENT I SAY! AAAAAAA!_"

As he ran the purple glow disappeared with a swish and his knife was dropped to the ground.

Sarah's eyes, wide as saucers, took in the girl's appearance, "Grace...?"

"Please..." The other girl grunted, more tired than she'd ever felt before, "catch... me..."

Sarah rushed to do as the now smaller and hairier girl requested, and she barely succeeded, "Oof!" Struggling to get to her feet with the other girl's arm pulled over her shoulder, Sarah couldn't help but comment, "Ugh! How are you so heavy?"

As she slowly, arduously worked the two of them towards her car, a look of rage over took Sarah's face, _Tedd... I'm going to kill you for this..._

_+- _Chapter Two: Shade, Part One End

Omake: Q&A Number One

In a room with dark green floors and white walls, a familiar German scientist stood.

"Guten Tag," he greeted in German much the same as his first appearance in the prologue, "I am the Stereotypical German Scientist. My assistant and I are here to answer many questions you readers have had, and to kill time till Sunday so as to allow Dan to-"

He was interrupted by his screaming assistant rolling by on rollerblades, barely maintaining her balance, "_AAAAAAAA! ROLLERBLADING IS HARD!_" As she zoomed by she noticed the Doctor, "_I'll be with you in a second Doctor...!_" Seconds later she crashed spectacularly, causing the doctor to wince.

"Back off," he grumbled to you the reader, "She types one hundred twenty words a minute."

+- Hey, Rollerblading IS hard. That or I just suck at it.

Again, the German scientist stood in his lab, his assistant standing next to him, drinking a soda absentmindedly.

"At least a couple of you have wondered," The scientist said, "why Grace was still so heavy after becoming smaller due to her transformation. The answer is simply that mass doesn't just disappear," he explained.

To his left, his assistant felt an odd gurgling in her stomach.

"Therefore," the man continued, "her overall weight remained the same, but her size got smaller resulting in a greater density, so technically it would be even harder to carry her when she's small."

Behind him, almost instantaneously, his assistant shrank right out of her clothing to the size of a doll.

"I personally have succeeded at designing methods to in effect reduce mass without actually getting rid of it, as my assistant just accidentally demonstrated by foolishly drinking a shrink potion of my own design," he peered down at her for a moment before going on to say, "You'd think she'd know not to drink just anything she finds around the lab by now."

"Hey!" his miniaturized assistant protested, "You told me it was soda!"

+- She wouldn't last five minutes in Tedd's Lab

The German Scientist yet again stood, ready to dispense scientific fact to you the reader.

"Question: Why didn't Sarah use her hammer on the mugger. Answer: The hammers women can use in this comic are meant only for comedic purposes. If the situation is serious in anyway, they cannot be used. Besides, they can only be used against men who have said or done something offensive towards women."

With a titanic boom, a comically sized mallet slammed into the German scientists head. It hit with such force that the mallet actually cracked all around the one side.

His assistant stood there, holding the hammer, a smug look on her face behind her glasses, "He's had that coming for at least a couple of months."

"Ow..."

+- Remember: REAL hammers do REAL damage

The German scientist and his assistant stood once again in his lab. The elderly German man held a letter in his hand.

"Dr. Germahn, is that really the last question we get to answer?" the busty blonde woman asked, pleading him to say that it wasn't.

"I'm afraid so, Amanda," Germahn said a little melancholy himself, "Let's hope for a good one."

Opening it up and unfolding the paper, Dr. Germahn read aloud with Amanda reading over his shoulder, "'Dear German scientist... what is your real name? And also, what is the name of your assistant?'"

For a moment, silence.

"Dammit."

+- The German Scientist's name is Dr. Germahn?


	3. Shade Part Two

Chapter Three: Shade, Part Two

Tedd and Elliot, completely as of yet unaware of the events in the mall alley, were playing Scrabble in Tedd's bedroom while waiting for the girls to get back.

"Could it be that Scrabble is the greatest game ever?" Tedd asked his friend who was placing letters on the board to spell out another word.

"Damn straight!" Elliot agreed.

Before Elliot could finish placing the letters down, Sarah stormed into the room.

She pointed at Tedd threateningly as she demanded, "_Alright Tedd, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO GRACE?_"

Tedd completely ignored her comment as he frowned at her, "Dammit, don't you knock? What if I had been naked?"

That thought seemed to take some of the wind out of Sarah's sails and Elliot looked grossed out.

"Why the hell would you be naked?" Elliot questioned.

"I dunno," Tedd admitted with a shrug, "Strip Scrabble?"

"Ew!"

"_COULD WE FOCUS PLEASE?_"

A couple of minutes later, all three of them were downstairs. Elliot and Tedd were inspecting the change Grace had gone through.

"What did you do to her, man?" Elliot was somewhat disturbed by the change the girl had gone through.

"I didn't do anything!" Tedd insisted.

"Bull!" Sarah snapped at him, and pointed at him with an accusing finger, "I haven't forgotten what you did to me that one time!"

Tedd glared at Sarah having long grown tired of being accused of things he wasn't guilty of and he yelled right back, "_GOD DAMMIT, I DIDN'T DO THIS TO HER!"_

"You should believe him, you know," they turned to see Tedd's father standing there looking rather annoyed with his arms crossed, "I've met those responsible and my son isn't one of them."

Making sure everyone was listening, he began a long explanation into Grace's general history and her birth, "Shade is the end result of a series of experiments conducted illegally by a group of scientists working under false pretenses. They got funding by making claims that they were working on vaccines and other beneficial medical treatments. They actually did do some work in that area so as to seem legitimate, but in actuality they were working on a project of a completely different nature.

"That project was what we have dubbed The Lycanthrope Project. The general idea was to breed and train people who appeared to be normal humans, but could transform into panic causing monsters at will. It has been theorized that they were meant to act as untraceable assassins on account of their being able to do their dirty work in animal form which would result in confusion for any crime lab attempting to solve the identity of the assassin.

"The first attempt at this was the creation of a man who could transform into a guinea pig. What resulted was a slow witted creature named Guineas that preferred to remain in animal form at all times to avoid the pain of transformation. As you can imagine, one's body being restructured in a matter of seconds isn't a pleasant process.

"So they attempted to improve on the basic design by using a hedgehog. This hedgehog man, or Hedge, proved to be better equipped in almost every way, perhaps not due to choice of animal but rather improved technique by the scientists. While the pain experienced during transformation was still a factor, the hedgehog was able to handle this well enough for the scientists to be briefly satisfied.

"Soon they decided to design a vampire bat, one who could fly and drain the blood out of its target. The result was Vlad, a deadly creature but one who was considered a failure. While he could indeed fly and drain blood, the transformation was so elaborate that Vlad ran the risk of killing himself every time he transformed. He remained in half bat form at all times as a result.

"After Vlad, they decided to address the issue of the pain caused by the transformation. To this end they made Shade Tail. The first and last creation to naturally release painkillers when transforming. She was considered a failure; the painkillers had side effects that made her ineffective as a killer. Not only that, but she herself hated violence and could not be trained in any form of combat.

"Eventually the company fell under suspicion, and it became my duty to infiltrate it. Shade was about thirteen at the time, and my job was to keep track of her health. Thanks to me, she got taken out of those horrendous combat training exercises meant to make her into a killing machine like her 'brothers'.

"It took some time for me to be able to leave safely with the information I had gathered. Right before a team was put together to put an end to the company, something happened that ended it for us. Someone else's pet project apparently broke into the facility, killed all the scientists inside and took their creations with it. No images exist of this creature.

"However, Shade and I talked earlier while Tedd was still sleeping. As far as she knows, this creature is not a creature at all but a really powerful human; at the very least she has never seen him transform. His name is Damien, and he has cared for her and her 'brothers' for some time but is a threat to everyone else on the planet."

999

A demented three horned skull with no eyes in its sockets and rows of sharp teeth appeared in the darkness of Grace's nightmare.

"**Time to wake up, Shade Tail...**"

Grace bolted up, clutching the blanket in her clawed hands, a scream escaping her throat.

After releasing her fear audibly she realized that someone was near her. She looked up to see Sarah standing at the back of the couch she was sitting on, her eyes wide in question. Grace merely gave the human girl a blank look for a couple of seconds.

"Hello," Sarah ventured sheepishly, waving with one hand.

"Hi," Grace was just as sheepish as she returned the wave.

Sarah eventually moved to sit next to Grace on the couch. Grace held her hands together in her lap, like a child afraid of being scolded. She really hoped that her form didn't disgust everyone.

"So..." Grace finally nervously spoke, "Where is everyone else?" she seemed to sink into herself, "Did I scare them away?"

Sarah brightened a little when she saw that Grace was still the somewhat naïve and socially akward girl that she was before, just furrier, and felt the need to assuage the young squirrel girl's fears.

"What? No! They're in Tedd's Dad's storage closet looking for information that might help them help you!"

Grace's face lit up like someone had flipped a switch, "Really? So they'll be back soon?"

A little unsure of how to deal with this sudden turn around, and somewhat familiar with that storage closet, all Sarah could offer her was a tenuous, "Um, sure..."

999

In a room too large to really be called a 'closet', Tedd, his dad and Elliot were practically swimming through a sea of top secret files that were _never _properly filed.

Elliot in particular seemed to be reading through something interesting, "Hell yeah! Area Fifty One fact sheets!"

Somewhere in the background Tedd's dad was waving his finger in the air needlessly, "_Forget you ever saw that!_" he commanded.

"No way!" Tedd called back, standing near Elliot, "Those are so going online later!"

999

Back in the living room, Grace needed a serious question answered, and Sarah was the only one that could possibly answer it.

"Sarah..." She started nervously, "You caught me and brought back here, didn't you?"

"Yeah, you collapsed after you scared that mugger away."

"But weren't you afraid of me after I just sorta turned into a monster?"

Sarah frowned, but not at Grace, "You're not a monster, Grace. Don't let anyone tell you that you are one, either."

For a moment Grace said nothing before she looked at Sarah adoringly, "...You are the coolest person I've ever met."

Sarah, instead of just accepting that compliment, looked away with her eyes as she said, "Thanks, But I'm not that cool. I just have some experience with this sort of thing..."

"Experience?" Grace asked with one eyebrow raised, "What are you talking about?"

Sarah sighed, and frowned at the memory itself, but started to repeat the incident anyway, "Well, the whole incident started a few months ago when Tedd and I were assigned to work on a project for school together..."

"_We're back!_" the call interrupted Sarah's story, and she wasn't very disappointed about it.

"Oh good! I'll tell you about that later, Grace."

Walking back into the room, Elliot moved to the corner, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed and propped up on one leg. He was observing the squirrel girl with a hard look, but didn't immediately call attention to his thoughts on the young woman.

"So Tedd," Sarah asked, "you got the files on Grace?"

Tedd nodded, "Yeah, they were hard to find, but-"

Elliot interrupted Tedd at that point, finally deciding to get to the bottom of the matter.

"Before we do our furry friend here any more favors, I think we should find out just why the hell she came here to begin with."

"Elliot!" Sarah scolded the brown haired teen, jumping to her feet.

"She's more dangerous than you might think, Sarah," he said in way of explanation, "I can feel it."

Grace sighed sadly, frowning at her lap, "I'm not dangerous..." she protested weakly, "I don't even know how to fight! But..." she looked at Tedd with hope in her eyes, like when he asked him to get to know her as Grace and not Shade, "I really should tell you why I came here...

"We already know about Vlad, Damien, etc," Elliot told her, his tone not any warmer than it was when he said she was dangerous, "We just need to know why you felt the need to get into contact with Tedd."

Grace heaved another sigh as she explained, "My 'brothers' are a threat to everyone. They are very aggressive, which is probably why the scientists decided I would be female... Ya know, less testosterone?

"Vlad is particularly dangerous. His lust for blood makes him no better than a vampire. The only thing keeping him from killing people on a daily basis is a promise I made him make to get blood only from farm stock, such as cows.

"I'm here because it's not their fault. They were made this way. I want to find a way to make it so both them and myself can't transform."

Elliot was actually feeling a little guilty about his harsh tone earlier. He stood next to her now, though he did keep his arms crossed to appear imposing, "So you want to protect people without resorting to violence..." he considered this, "That's good, but there's still one more thing!"

"Really?" Grace turned to face him, "Like what?"

Elliot leaned down, a somewhat perverted grin on his face, "Like why you were basically naked when you first came to this house?"

The next thing Grace saw was a sledgehammer meeting Elliot's skull at high velocity.

With Elliot out cold on the ground, Sarah, the wielder of the hammer, kept the conversation going.

"I know it was a legitimate question, but I didn't like his tone..."

Grace decided to ignore the fact that the blonde had just violently attacked her friend with a hammer and cleared her throat, "When I found the article about Tedd and the goo, I figured he was my best chance for making my 'brothers' and I normal.

"You know," She went on to say, a finger to her chin, "it's strange... I don't normally faint when I change. I usually just get dizzy..." She shrugged it off, "But oh well.

"I'm currently only partially transformed. In order to escape, I completely transformed into a small squirrel which is why I didn't have any clothes to wear. Once I was far enough away, I turned back to normal. I was freezing though, and I knew I wouldn't make it to Tedd's house unnoticed without covering myself so I kinda stole that coat..." She shrunk into herself again at the admission of the crime, "I'd like to return it someday."

Tedd now sitting next to the squirrel girl said, "Well, I'll do what I can to help you, Grace, as much as I like your squirrel form..." He muttered the last bit, but she still heard him, "And I'll try to find out why you fainted as well."

"I bet he'll b able to pull it off, Grace," Elliot spoke as he shrugged his jacket on, apparently recovered from the hammer blow and satisfied with her answers, "so stick with him. Sorry if I was pushy earlier, but I like to be safe rather than sorry. Anyway, It's time I got out of here. See ya." Elliot quickly made his way out of the house, his head bowed and staring intently out at the night. Sarah quickly grabbed her coat and rushed out after him.

"Hey! Elliot! Wait up!"

Tedd stared after his two friends worried about how Elliot seemed to be taking things.

"Elliot was acting pretty weird..." He explained to Grace, "Maybe I should go find out why."

Grace leaned into Tedd, wrapping her arms and tail around him, "Stay," she pleaded.

Tedd was silent for a moment, "...That also works..."

+- Chapter Three: Shade, Part Two End


	4. Relations Part 1 & 2

Chapter Four: Relations, Part One

Sarah caught up to Elliot outside of Tedd's house. He was looking intently at the ground when she was up to a few feet from him.

"Elliot, what's wrong? Why are you leaving so suddenly? I'm sorry about the hammer..." she said, thinking that might be the reason, "You don't need to leave so early..."

Elliot didn't respond except to look up at the night sky.

"Elliot...?" She reached out for him, getting truly worried now.

The teen finally turned around to face her, a mild frown on his face.

"Someone tried to mug you. You should visit my martial arts class, maybe even join. I have class at seven tomorrow. I could pick you up at six forty five. Sound good?"

Sarah tilted her head to the left as she observed the young man, "Um, sure. I guess that would-"

"Great," Elliot interrupted her, turning swiftly away, "See you tomorrow then." He quickly got in his car and drove away.

999

The next day, a Monday for those who forgot, Elliot sat in the cafeteria during lunch period, despondently looking at the table as he dreaded the events to come that night.

Tedd walked up to him, lunch tray in hand, "What are you doing, sleeping? This is lunch, fool..." he set his tray down then continued, "Eat something!"

"Where have you been all day?" Elliot asked his purple haired friend, "I thought you were sick or something!"

Peering at his lunch Tedd explained, "I fell asleep on the couch and there's no alarm clock in that room so I overslept."

"Why did you fall asleep there?" The other teen asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Things just sort of ended up that way..." He opened his soda and took a sip, "So how you doing? Good?" Elliot groaned and his head hit the table, "Super good?"

Some time later, with Elliot no longer sitting with his face pressed into the table, Tedd finished off what is presumed to be a rather ridiculous, but probably true, story.

"...And that, my friend, is how I saved Christmas," he took a celebratory sip of his soda.

Around that time, Elliot spotted the last person he wanted to see this period, "Uh-oh! Here comes Sarah! I gotta hide!"

Tedd watched bemusedly as his best friend scrambled for a moment before simply pulling his coat over his head and staring forward blankly.

Sarah walked over and simply stood there, glaring down at Elliot with her arms crossed.

"I can still see you, you know."

"Liar."

His defenses defeated so thoroughly, Elliot resorted to wearing his jacket in the proper fashion as his blonde friend sat down on his other side, away from Tedd.

"Elliot," Sarah began, actually looking more worried than annoyed, "you've been avoiding me all day. Why don't you want to talk to me?"

The teen sighed as he turned to her, "Well, it's complicated. I want to talk, but I find that I-"

At that point the warning bell ringed.

Elliot was on his feet and running away so quickly it brought a stiff wind that mussed Tedd's and Sarah's hair. The only other hint that a whole living teen had been in the spot just seconds ago was a desperate cry of, "_Oh ye Gods I'm going to be late for study hall gotta go see you around six forty five BYE!_"

As the two left sitting there basked in silence in the wake of Elliot's swift escape, Sarah couldn't help but think about his actions.

_Wow..._ she placed one arm over the other, _If he's already acting this strange around me maybe it's a good thing he's totally clueless about me wanting to date him._

999

Later that day, after school was over, Tedd walked into his house and called out a greeting.

"Dad? Grace? I'm home!"

Seconds after he closed the door he found himself under attack. A figure, somewhat smaller than his own, tackled him. Not nearly as physically active as Elliot, he didn't have the mass to simply throw his attacker off. Instead, he crumpled to the ground with a crash.

Looking up, Tedd saw the face of his attacker.

"Hello!" Grace chirped as she sat on his chest.

"H-hi..." Tedd got out, but having a little trouble breathing with her sitting on him, "I appreciate your affection, but you're crushing me. Get off please?"

Once he was able to sit up again Tedd put a hand on his chest to feel for internal damage as he took a deep breath.

"Ah, air is good. So," He turned to the girl still in her hybrid form, "Why are you still in squirrel form?"

"Well," the girl said, "two reasons. One, I passed out the last time I transformed so when I turn back I want someone around and two..." She looked over at Tedd, ducking her head a little shyly, "...You said you like this form." as she said this she wrapped the other teen in her bushy tail.

Tedd took a moment to observe Grace before asking, "You like me, don't you?"

Grace, happy he knew of her feelings, just nodded, "Totally! What gave me away?"

A few minutes later, Tedd had Grace stand in front of a chair as she transformed back into her human shape. Her ears shortened, her fur regressed into her skin and her hair became rather tame again.

The painkillers kicked in and she collapsed into the chair. She was visibly tired but didn't actually look like she was about to pass out.

"How do you feel?" Tedd asked.

"Dizzy," she breathed, "a little out of it... But that's normal, I guess." Her eyes half lidded from the energy draining painkillers, she looked at Tedd, "Heh... At least I didn't pass out, eh? So how was school?" She was quickly over coming the groggy effects of the anesthetics, "I'm hoping if we can take care of the risk my brothers pose I'll be able to go myself someday."

Tedd shrugged, "Okay, I guess. Elliot was acting weird though. Something to do with him and Sarah going to his martial arts class I'm guessing based on him saying he'd see her at six forty five when he has class at seven."

The dark skinned girl lifted an eyebrow, "Martial arts? Huh. What kind?"

The purple haired teen blinked, "Your guess is as good as mine. He doesn't talk about it much," thinking for a couple seconds, Tedd placed one fist to his chin, holding up that arm with his other, "Maybe his being weird has something to do with him knowing that Sarah wants to date him..."

"Wait, she wants to date him? Ugh," Grace blanched, "I wonder why..." A thought struck her as she as she was trying divine why the blonde girl would want to date Elliot, "Hey wait..." she lifted one eyebrow, "He knows she likes him... And if she doesn't know he knows and he's acting all weird because he's taking her to his martial arts class..." Grace gasped.

"What is it?" Tedd asked, his own eyebrow arching.

"I really hope I'm wrong, because if I'm not..." She looked out the nearby window, "...He's going to break her heart."

999

Sarah sat at the window of her house, already wearing her jacket as she waited for Elliot to show up.

**Honk Honk!**

Elliot waved at her with a half smile on his face. Sarah grinned at him encouragingly and waved back before getting up to go to the door.

While she did that, Elliot looked down at his steering wheel and sighed, wondering if he was doing the right thing.

+- Relations, Part Two

A short drive later, Elliot and Sarah stood in front of building.

"This is where you train?" Sarah asked.

"Yee-yup."

Sarah took another moment to examine the sign, making sure she wasn't just seeing things. Nope, the sign on the front of the building still read 'ANIME-STYLE MARTIAL ARTS'.

"Okay... well, let's go in then."

Once inside, it was pretty much what one would expect to find of a normal dojo. Leather mats, large mirror on one side of the wall for students to compare their movements to the sensei's, and a slew of students preparing for that night's lesson.

One in particular was a blond guy with a silver earring in his right ear sitting in the lotus position trying to meditate at the back of the dojo.

"It looks bigger once inside..." Sarah commented, wondering at the spacial disproportion.

Elliot put his hands to the sides of his mouth and yelled to be heard over the other students, "Hey Justin! Quit meditating and get over here!"

"But I'm about to obtain inner peace!" The blond yelled back.

"Screw inner peace!" Elliot barked at him then pointed at Sarah, "I got a friend for you to meet!"

Sarah, observing their interactions turned to Elliot, "He's not your teacher, is he?"

Elliot, who had seemed a bit sombre in the car ride there, was beginning to perk up the longer they were in the dojo, "Him? Nah! He's just another student."

Justin walked over, and Elliot gestured to him and then Sarah then back again, "Sarah, Justin. Justin, Sarah."

"Hello," Sarah greeted with a smile.

"Hey," Justin gave a short wave back.

The two of them, despite discrepancies in height, almost looked like they could be related.

Before more could be said between the three, a large black man peeked through one of the doorways and called out, "Elliot! I need your advice! Get in here now!"

"Dammit," Elliot cursed under his breath, "That's my teacher. I'll be back. Justin," he turned to one of the few people taller than himself, "entertain Sarah for a minute."

"But what about my inner peace?"

"None for you," He turned back to blonde girl, "Back soon, Sarah." and he walked off to see what his sensei needed.

"Okay," Sarah said then turned to Justin," Was that the teacher asking for Elliot's advice?" Justin nodded, "Elliot must be really good!" She was surprised, nothing she'd seen the boy do gave away that he had any martial skill at all, let alone that he was skilled enough for his own sensei to consult him on matters.

"Yeah," the taller blond nodded to her again, "he is. Only one student here is higher ranking than he is."

Looking around at the other students, Sarah tried to spot them on her own merits, "Really? Who's better than Elliot?"

"She's right over there," Justin cut his eyes in the girl's direction, "she just got dressed."

"'She'?" Sarah asked as she looked where the taller blond indicated, surprised that a girl was actually the top student.

The girl Justin indicated actually _looked_ like a badass. She had vibrant red hair that came down to her shoulders and green eyes. She was a buxom young woman, wearing a black Karate gi with red trim and ripped sleeves. Her top was open, and she was using a tube top to cover her decency. She had a black belt, red wrist bands, and black pants on. Her muscles were well defined and yet only served to make her look more appealing and badass.

One eyebrow raised in question, "Who the hell is that?"

"She's Nanase," Justin told her, "She's the only student here who can beat Elliot."

"Why is she dressed like that?" Sarah asked about the other girls rather risque` mode of dress.

"Black belts wear what they want," he said simply.

"Is that a rule?" the girl asked.

"Sorta: nobody is brave enough to tell them no."

Deciding to ponder other matters and not mentally compare her figure to Nanase's, Sarah looked in the direction Elliot had left.

"I wonder what your teacher wanted help with?"

"I dunno," Justin said lifting his finger as he added, " but Sensei Greg works in strange and mysterious ways..."

999

Greg, master of the Anime-Style Martial Arts dojo, was a very tall, coffee colored man with naturally curly, black hair. He was incredibly muscular, and was very imposing with visible energy rolling off of him, yelling as he focused his energy.

"_Well?_" the man asked, "_Is my hair golden and spiky yet?_" He clenched his teeth as he spoke, trying not to lose his concentration.

Elliot looked like he was actually embarrassed to be in the same room as this man.

"Um, no sir."

"_What about now?_"

"Um, no. I don't think it's possible to go 'Super', sir."

"_Ergh! Maybe..._" His concentration waned for a moment, but then Greg began focusing harder than ever as he said, "_But what if it is and my archrival Carrot Top achieves it before I do?_"

Elliot rolled his eyes, "He's not your archrival, sir; he's a bad comedian. Can I get ready for class now?"

999

Back with Sarah and Justin, the blonde girl was curious about the origin of the dojo.

"So..." she began, "What exactly is the deal with this school? I've never heard of Anime Style Martial Arts before."

Justin nodded, "I'm not surprised. As far as I know, Sensei Greg is the only guy who teaches it. In fact, he designed the discipline himself!" He then explained what he knew of it's history, "Legend has it that after getting dumped by his girlfriend a few years back, he watched one hundred sixty eight hours straight of anime. Already a black belt in three disciplines, he was able to decipher the key to accessing the awesome power of a person's 'Ki'!" Justin was grinning proudly at the exploits of his sensei.

Frowning in thought, Sarah asked, "And how exactly does someone do that?"

"By participating in difficult, overly complex and fairly ridiculous activities that shouldn't yield such fantastic results and yet somehow do."

As Justin explained that, Nanase was getting ready for that night's sparring session. She took a loose horse stance, her fists at her side, her knees bent. A frown marred her pretty face and her hair began to writhe and wriggle as if it was gaining a life of it's own, lifting into the air. A glow began to permeate the air around her form and even the ties on her belt began to lift into the air.

It was a truly impressive sight.

Sarah was stunned, "Um... What the heck is she doing?"

"She is focusing her Ki..." Even the taller blonde seemed impressed, "I pity the poor fool that has to spar with her tonight."

999

"So you brought a friend and potential student with you tonight?" Greg asked, a devious look working it's way onto his face as he thought of the perfect exhibition to make the girl want to join, "How about giving her a demonstration by going up against Nanase tonight?" His arms crossed as he anticipated showing off his best students.

Elliot nodded his ascent, "Certainly, sir."

A half minute later Elliot walked by Sarah towards the locker room, "Aw man, sorry I was in there for so long, Sarah, I really need to get dressed for class, I'll talk to you afterwards okay?"

Sarah sighed as she watched him go, counting down mentally, _Three... Two... One..._

She couldn't have looked more smug if sh tried when the young man came back, looking rather annoyed with himself.

"Uniform's in the car. Going to get it and come back. We'll pretend this never happened. Talk after class."

999

Nanase was now deep into accessing her Ki, light shining brightly from her eyes, her hair whipping about wildly, and the air around her seeming to be set on fire, and her scream of concentration was echoing oddly, "**AAAAAAA!**"

"Looking good, Nanase!" Elliot complimented as he walked by holding his gym bag.

The light show turned off like someone flipped a switch, and she gave Elliot a more than friendly smile, "Why thank you, Elliot. Same could be said for you..."

Elliot grinned and gave her a peace sign, "Hehe... Thanks!"

After he had gone, the light of her Ki lit the air again, her hair was back to reaching for the ceiling, her eyes glowing yet again, a stream of burning energy arching between her hands as she held them in the air, roaring, again with that odd echo.

999

While Elliot was changing, Greg walked up to the sole person he didn't recognize in his dojo.

"Take off your shoes," he commanded, harsher than he meant to.

Whipping around in surprise, Sarah saw the mountain of muscle that was the sensei here up close for the first time, "Nee?"

Greg smiled a friendly smile and gestured to the main floor of the Dojo, "There's going to be a demonstration match I'd like you to see, but you'll see better on the mat and shoes aren't allowed on it."

Sarah sighed a little in relief that she hadn't somehow offended this man, "Oh, hehe... okay."

"Hehe!" He chuckled with her, then crossed his arms and fixed her with a look, "...Seriously though, take off your shoes."

Sarah eeped and rushed to comply, "Y-yes sir!"

Sarah chose to sit on the mat next to Justin, hoping he could give her good commentary on the match to come. She noticed that while she simply sat cross legged he had each foot resting on his thighs while his hands rested on his knees like a Yoga master.

She contemplated this for a moment before trying to imitate this, using her hands to try to force her legs into position, "Erk!" she grunted in pain at her failure, then crossed her arms petulantly, "Curse you and your flexible legs!" She told the taller blonde.

Justin just now realized she was there when she spoke, "Hm?"

The girl would have elaborated, but Greg had just called Elliot and Nanase to the mat for the exhibition match.

"Alright, you know the rules!" He crossed his arms as his students got into their individual stances. Nanase stood with one leg forward, her left arm leading two fingers on each hand held out straight. Elliot was in a similar stance, with his right arm leading, and his fingers curled into claws. "First to be held or down for three seconds, to give up or leave the mat loses!

"I want a clean fight!" He barked out, "Nanase, no magic and stay above the belt!"

"Damn," she didn't actually appear to care.

"Elliot, no summoning inner demons and stay away from her breasts!"

"Damn," Elliot seemed honestly annoyed by those guidelines.

Sarah was disbelieving what she just heard, one eyebrow arched above the other, "Magic and summoning inner demons?"

Justin shook his head at her, _Scrub._

"Start on three!" Greg lifted one hand in the air, "One, two..." he zipped away from the area of the fight so quickly that he left a black trail of color in the air from his gi, "Three!"

For a moment, Elliot and Nanase stood there, observing each other. Elliot was an opposite to Nanase in almost every way. Her appearance was wild, untamed, sensual. Her stance was loose and her primary color seemed to be a fiery red.

Elliot was the picture of order, control and will power. His gi, black trimmed with a cool blue, was immaculate, not a single stitch out of place, and his stance perfect.

After a few seconds to observe each other, Nanase spoke.

"Don't you dare go easy on me!"

Elliot scoffed, "I wouldn't worry about that!"

The two of them charged each other, Nanase trailing red energy, and Elliot blue.

Elliot jumped forward with a punch. Nanase ducked beneath it and slid along the ground beneath his airborne form.

"What?" He tried to salvage his attack by coating his other fist in that same blue energy as before and slamming it down at her, but she was too fast, "Dammit!

Nanase slipped out of his reach, and leaped to her feet, launching a red glowing kick to his ribs, "HAI~!"

"GAH!" Elliot grunted in pain, rolling a few feet when he hit the ground.

Behind him, Nanase landed elegantly, her arms raised perfectly straight in the air, one knee pulled up to her chest.

"Ugh..." Elliot groaned as he began to get back to his feet. He noticed what Nanase was doing and grew annoyed, "Dammit Nanase! Get out of your 'Look at me, I just kicked Elliot' victory pose and attack already!"

She turned to face him, placing both feet on the ground, her arms at her sides again, the air around her twinkling ominously.

Quite suddenly, with a magic hum, she split into three copies, one with her original coloration, the middle one with green instead of red, and the third with blue. They all assumed the same stance and started forward.

Elliot narrowed his eyes and grumbled, "Dammit, I hate these trendy 'which one is real' illusion attacks!"

Elliot quickly resumed his stance, his brow furrowed as he carefully tried to pick out the real Nanase, _ Eenie Meenie Miney Moe, catch Nanase by her toe, if she hollers..._

The three Nanases simultaneously front flipped towards him.

_Mid-air flips?_ Elliot thought, _Maybe she's going to go behind me again and attack from there? Or..._

Elliot frowned and prepared to punch, _She's trying to throw me off guard... The direct assault is the real! She's the green one!_

Blue flipped over to behind him, Red flanked him, and Elliot whipped his left fist at the green one.

Alarmingly, both Red and Green puffed away.

"Aw crap, she was the blu-_AAUUGH!"_ he cried out in pain as a glowing red fist slammed into his back, launching him forward with a boom.

Nanase growled and glared down at the brown haired boy, "Elliot!" she snapped at him, "I don't believe this... you're going easy one me!"

"My back has redefined the word pain..." Elliot whimpered. Elliot slowly stood back up and Nanase pointed at him angrily.

"You said you wouldn't go easy on me!" She yelled at him, "I can sense your power, Elliot..." She narrowed her eyes as she came to a conclusion, "You're toying with me!"

"Erk!" Elliot grunted, a snap filling the air as his spine realigned.

The redhead grabbed Elliot by the front of his gi, pulling him in close as she shouted at him, "Why don't you fight me for real? Is it because we've been-"

Elliot frowned, his eyes shining blue light, "-Sorry to interrupt, but-" A rumble filled the air and Elliot shouted out, "**TAMASHII GEKIDO!**"

Nanase was blown back with critical force, his gi ripping where she had hold of it, and a boom reverberating in the dojo.

Nanase hit the wall of the dojo, and landed upside down, "Ow."

Elliot untied his belt and took off his gi top, revealing a dark blue tank top, "Sorry about that," he said, but had a hard look on his face, "Anyway, the reason I go easy on everyone is because I'm a coward," he put the belt to his forehead and began tying it in the back, "I'm afraid I'll really hurt someone. I even fear that my power will corrupt me," after it was secured in place Elliot resumed his stance, "Please just accept the power I use here to be what I feel safe with, and enjoy the battle. I am ready."

Watching over the battle, Greg couldn't be more proud.

"A change in appearance and overly dramatic dialogue?" Greg held up two fingers on each hand and was grinning like a loon, "**X**-tra credit!"

Elliot dropped his stance and looked back at the huge man, "Extra credit? Since when do we have grades?"

Greg blinked for a moment before pointed back to the mat, "...Get back to the fight, drama queen!"

Nanase meanwhile bowed her head in respect of Elliot's choice.

"I see..." she said lowly, "Your power is so great that you fear what you might do with it," She lifted her hands to her sides in understanding as she raised her head, "And since your reasoning is out of concern for the safety of others, I should simply accept your logic."

Her hands dropped back to her sides, clenching into fists and a frown overcame her face as she growled out, "But I don't," She quickly took up a stance and began yelling at the boy angrily, "_I've been given the title of best in class, Elliot! I'm not worthy of that title unless it's true!_ _You will fight me using your full power!_"

Elliot sighed, his stance getting tighter, _Nanase..._

Sarah was starting to freak out, her eyes wide, _How is this all possible?_

Justin seemed intrigued by something, his chin resting on his fist, _Why can't Elliot always dress like that?_

Greg, if anything, was freaking out more than Sarah, _Full power? My insurance doesn't cover that!_

The master of the dojo sprinted over to the two, glaring at them as he hissed out, just loud enough for them to hear, "What are you two doing? Full power? This is a demonstration match for God's sake!"

Nanase grinned at him, "Oh, we know that! That's why we're tossing in all the drama, to make things more interesting!" She winked at him.

"Good," Greg nodded but hissed angrily, "Except you're scaring away the person we're trying to get to join!"

A look at the blond girl showed her sitting there limply, her head tilted to one side, staring blankly ahead. She almost appeared to be watching a train wreck, horrified but fascinated.

"She does seem a little frightened..." Nanase admitted.

Greg nodded, still glaring and crossing his arms, "See?"

After a few moments, Greg nodded to himself and began to rub his hands together, "Okay," He told the two of them with a sly grin, "here's how we change things..." He pointed to the red haired girl, "Nanase, you become the Bunny-Goddess of Good Luck," he then shifted his finger to the boy, "Elliot, You take the role of a jinxed bounty hunter, and together you'll travel the universe searching for fame and fortune!" Greg paused as he thought over the description he just gave the two of them before totally freaking out, waving his arms in the air and actually crying, "**_WAAAAAA WHY DID THEY EVER CANCEL THE 'LUCKY BUNNY BOUNTY SHOW'?_**"

Elliot watched this for a second before whispering to Nanase, "He's lost it. Wanna leave early?"

She nodded, "After we finish the match."

After walking far enough from their master that he wouldn't be caught in the crossfire from any of the moves they might yet use, Nanase admitted they might have been a little extreme in their performance.

"Greg's right; if we don't want to scare her away we need a simple finish."

"But that won't work!" Elliot protested, "We've hyped up the finish too much!"

"Well we gotta do something- and fast! We look ridiculous just standing here!"

Elliot put a hand to his chin, trying to think of a solution to this problem, "Hmmm..."

Nanase however thought of one first.

She pointed across the way, tilting her head to see around him, "...Hey, is that a demonic duck of some sort?"

Elliot's head whipped in the direction she was pointing, "A demon duck?"

With her opponent distracted, Nanase dropped down and swept Elliot's feet out from under him.

"What the-?" he fell backwards, "Agh!"

Over in the corner, a red duck like creature with two black horns, a long red tail, and black pits for eyes grumbled, "I feel so used..."

Nanase quickly moved over the brown haired teen, pinning him to the floor by his wrists, a victorious smirk on her face.

"_ELLIOT IS DOWN! ONE!_"

Elliot began to panic and struggle to get out of Nanase's grip, _Crap! I forgot about our little 'tradition'!_

"_TWO!_"

He tried to reason with her quickly, "Nanase-I-know-we-normally-do-this-after-every-fight-but-maybe-"

"_THREE!_"

Nanase silenced him with a sensual kiss.

"Mmph..!"

"_NANASE WINS!_"

Sarah saw the kiss, a black knot of pain starting to twist in her heart, her world darkening as she came to the realization that Elliot and that girl Nanase were in a relationship. That Nanase was a babe and she was... she just was.

That she never even had a chance with Elliot.

Nanase was lifted off of her boyfriend unexpectedly, "Nani?" she cried out in japanese.

"_THE WINNER!_" Greg declared as he held Nanase in the air easily by the back of her gi, holding up a v for victory with his free hand.

The redhead turned a glare on her instructor as she growled out, "Put._ ME. _**_Down._**"

Greg grinned nervously, "Hey, you know I'm just kidding!" He released her, noticing something though, "Wait... Elliot, where did that friend of yours go?"

"Gah!" Nanase yelped as she fell to the floor.

Elliot was at the door Sarah had left through, staring sadly after her, "She... left." He hated that he hurt her.

"What?" Greg yelped, his eyes bulging with frustration, "But... new student... more money... more anime dvds... Argh!"

Elliot sighed, _Sarah..._

From her spot on the ground, Nanase looked at Elliot's dejected form as she put the pieces together in her mind, _That was a friend of Elliot? And she ran out after I kissed him... Oh dear..._

Not quite getting over the loss of a potential student, but realizing he needed to get back to teaching, Greg started barking out orders at his students, "_OKAY PEOPLE, ELLIOT AND NANASE GET TO REST FOR A BIT BUT AS FOR TH REST OF YOU IT'S TIME TO START TRAINING!_"

Nanase approached Elliot who was still standing in the doorway, "What is your friend's name?"

"Eh? Oh..." Elliot looked back at her, "Sarah."

"How long have the two of you been friends?"

Turning around to face her partially her answered, "As long as I can remember."

"And she's attracted to you?"

"...Yes."

"And does she know that you're aware of that?"

"I don't think she does."

"And she didn't know about me before tonight, did she?"

"No," Elliot bowed his head, looking away from his girlfriend.

Nanase frowned as Elliot kept giving up more and more damning evidence against himself, "So she didn't know we were together until she saw us kiss?"

"Yes."

Nanase glared at her boyfriend for a moment before-

_**POW!**_

She delivered a full on smack to the unsuspecting boy's face.

"You've known this girl all your life," she began gesticulating angrily with her hands, "and yet instead of talking about the feelings you know she has you decide to show her that you're in a relationship by making her witness it in person without any sort of warning?"

Elliot couldn't look her in the eye as he held his still stinging cheek and tried to justify himself, "Look, I had a plan, it just went wrong!" Nanase crossed her arms and didn't lessen her glare in the slightest as he continued, "I knew she'd be upset no matter what, but I figured It would be easier on her if she was under the impression that I was just stupid and oblivious to her attraction, so that in a way I wouldn't be rejecting her! So I planned to introduce you to her but Greg wanted to see me in his office and I was running late for class so I thought I's try afterwards but-"

"Oh please," She cut him off, "you chickened out at every opportunity. Not only that, but did you ever think about the consequences of you being oblivious to her, what that must have done to her self esteem? If she made an effort to get you to notice her in a different way and you just ignored it entirely, well, dammit, that couldn't have felt good Elliot!"

"...I hadn't considered that..." Elliot admitted quietly.

Nanase growled and yelled at the young man, "Why are you even still here? Go after her, you jerk! You need to talk to her and tell her the truth!"

"Right..." Elliot nodded, before frowning in thought, "Wait, aren't you worried about your boyfriend talking to a girl who is attracted to him and known him for years?"

"You saying I've got reason to be worried?" She demanded darkly.

Elliot leaned back holding up his hands in a placating manner, "...Um...Well, gotta go!" He quickly advanced to the rear.

Dressed in his normal clothes again, Elliot quickly searched the area around the Dojo for Sarah.

_I need to fix this..._ Elliot told himself, _I'll never forgive myself if I lose her..._

He walked along the road a bit, trying to deduce her location, _Let's see, where could she have gone? There's the strip club, the cigarette store, the adult book store, the abortion clinic or the ice cream place..._ Elliot frowned to himself for a couple seconds, _Note to self: Never ask Greg why he chose this location for his school..._

Looking in the only place it was logical for Sarah to go, Elliot spotted her sitting at a table in the ice cream place, a sundae in front of her that she wasn't touching.

He slowly walked over, guilty over the sad look on her face.

"Hey," he said weakly.

She looked up at him and he winced at the depression in her eyes, "Hello."

He sat down across from here and the two of them stared sullenly at the table for a moment before he tried to open up the conversation to come.

"You, um, left rather suddenly..."

Sarah sighed and tried to put on a brave face, "Well, you know how it is; sometimes you just have to have an ice cream sundae." She couldn't look him in the eye as she said it.

Elliot let that statement hang for a second before he got to the core of it, "Sarah, I know how you feel about me. I've... known for a while now..."

Sarah's face twisted with emotional pain as he said that, "But... but if you knew, why... why did you..." She couldn't finish her voice hitching.

"Ever since I first found out about how you felt, I've been afraid," he told her, "I was already dating Nanase at the time. I never talked about it because..." Elliot sighed, trying to find the right words, "Well... The thing is, We've been friends for all our lives and I was afraid that would end all because of your crush-"

"_A CRUSH?_" Sarah all but screamed out, "Oh God..." She turned away from him, closing her eyes and putting a hand to her face as tears began pouring from her eyes, "Elliot, this isn't just some crush... I... I love you..."

"What did you just say?" The taller teen's eyes were wide as saucers at that admission. His body froze up as he tried to compute what Sarah just told him.

"I... I shouldn't have said that..." she couldn't look at Elliot anymore, she needed to leave, "You're in a relationship... you don't need this..." She stood up and left the table and Elliot behind, "Forget I said anything... I think I'll just walk home now..." tears were freely rolling down her face by this point.

As she was walking out the door, Elliot's subconscious had finally dealt with the fact that one of his oldest friends really, truly loved him, _She loves me...?_

He startled out of his thoughts when he realized she was long gone and practically jumped to his feet, "_SARAH, WAIT!_" He ran out the door, desperately searching for her. "_SARAH!_"

_I can't believe she loves me..._

"_SARAH!_"

_I just thought she was attracted to me, just some crush..._ He spun about desperately, searching for any hint of pink or flash of blonde hair.

"_I DIDN'T PLAN ON YOU FINDING OUT IN THAT WAY!_"

_Wait, her saying that doesn't mean anything! It could still be just some confused attraction..._ He hoped.

"_**SARAH?**_"

_...But what if it's true? What if she really is in love with me?_

"_WHERE ARE YOU?_" He stopped running, not seeing her anywhere, panting as he looked at the ground despondently. He sighed in depression, _It doesn't matter. Even if she was in love with me before, she can't possibly be now. I've made the biggest mistake of my life..._

Elliot's day was about to get worse.

Nanase, surrounded by a glowing red energy- her Ki no doubt- floated over to Elliot, still in her gi, "I heard you yelling," She told him, "Is everything okay?"

"Technically, yeah," he said, "but not really..." he paused before explaining a little of what happened, "I can't believe I messed up this badly... She ran off after we talked a little and now I can't find her! I don't know what to do..."

Negating her glow and dropping to the ground she told him, "Elliot, I'll help you with the first thing you should have done..." She looked down for a moment, thinking about what she was about to do, then looked him in the eye, "I'm breaking up with you."

"_WHAT?_"

"I'm not going to be in a relationship with someone who is in love with someone else," she explained to him.

"What are you-"

"Don't even try, Elliot," she cut him off, "I can see it in your eyes how you feel about her, and I know how your mind works. You're afraid of dating her because you think she'll eventually dump you and the two of you wont have any further contact," she ticked off the points she made on her fingers.

"How do you get that from anything I've said or done?" Elliot frowned in thought as he asked.

"Well, your actions just label you as a coward, but the fact that we've actually discussed how you feel about relationships before kinda helps my synopsis," She tilted her head to one side as she realized something, "I just didn't realize you were talking about a specific person until now."

"Nanase, I..." he looked at her sheepishly, "I'm sorry..."

The redheaded badass crossed her arms, "Don't be sorry for me, be sorry for her. She's the one who loves you or whatever. Besides," she reminded him, "you and I both know this relationship was little more than two good friends giving each other privileges."

Elliot frowned a little, "I never liked to think about it that way."

"But that's what it was," she insisted, "Name ONE romantic thing we ever did together."

"Does making out in the car outside the movie theater count?"

"Nope."

Elliot sighed, "I do want to be with her..." he looked down, feeling ashamed of himself, "but I've been so stupid!"

Nanase saw that he needed a little hope injected, before he turned permanently emo, and said, "Yeah, but if she really loves ya, that won't matter," in a sing song voice.

+- Chapter Four: Relations, Part One & Two End


End file.
